Wireless mesh networks, including digital home networks, may include several wireless communication nodes that transfer and route communications for different applications therebetween. These communications may be associated with a particular application flow that may have a contracted (i.e., requested) quality-of-service (QoS) level requirement. Examples of higher QoS level application flows include high-definition television (HDTV) flows, standard television (SDTV) flows, streaming video flows and voice flows. One problem with conventional mesh networks is that lower QoS level application flows, such as background and best effort flows, may negatively affect higher QoS level flows because access to the transmission medium is not effectively managed resulting in bursty arrival patterns at receiving nodes of the network.